These maps are Awesome!

The lovely folks at Awesome Maps have sent us one of their… well, awesome wall maps. Based between Bali and Berlin, they produce high quality illustrated world map posters that they hope are informative as well as beautiful. You too can own one, as this month’s competition gives you the chance to win a paper map of your choice from their range. And even better news, there are three chances to win and our comp is open to everyone around the globe!

Awesome Maps explains:

The kinds of map we create vary from an illustrated surf guide that shows the world’s best spots to catch a wave complete with information on seasons, wave types, and difficulty, to a scratch-off bucket list map, to a black and white line map filled with patterns for you to colour in!

We chose a copper coloured map of the world. It swiftly arrived – in its lovely packing tube – and we had it framed and mounted by a great local company nearby – Abacus of Mytholmroyd. (They’ve framed lots of vintage posters and paintings for us over the years and we highly recommended them).

Regular readers of our blog will know that we love our metallic highlights when it comes to home décor, so this particular map was an obvious choice for us.

They have a huge range to choose from so we’re sure that you’ll find something you like. They do travel maps, activity maps, colouring maps… all kinds of maps. Check out their website and see!

The maps are printed on very good quality paper and have lovely detailing. You can have them framed or suspended from hanging bars and bulldog clips – even pinned to notice boards etc.

We’ve not decided on a final position for our map as yet, but it looks pretty good above our bed… and, as you can see from the photographs, a dark grey wall certainly is the perfect backdrop for this particular map.

Have you got the perfect spot for one? If so, get entering. We love ours, we’re sure you will too! To be in the running to be one of 3 winners, tell us which map you’d choose from their website. And remember, this month’s giveaway is open internationally!

Win a wall map of your choice from Awesome Maps

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Competition Database | UK Bloggers | U Me and the Kids

Putting Britain on the map

We’ll certainly have no excuses if our knowledge of home isn’t up to scratch any more. We recently made a bulk purchase of about 20 large vintage school wall maps. Produced by G W Bacon in the 1950s, many feature the British Isles – and cover every aspect of its geography – towns, roads, railways, population density, industries, geology, rivers, relief, contours, isotherms, isobars and rainfall.

It’s been very enjoyable sorting through them. They’re 60 years old – so slightly out-of-date in some respects, but no less interesting. It’s often the differences between ‘then & now’ found on these old maps & globes that are fascinating. The ‘traditional industry’ map illustrates this perfectly. If you click on each image you can view them in greater detail.

In addition to their educational value, these vintage maps are also very decorative in terms of graphic design and colour. They look great in a library, study or office space. We’ve hung a row of them along a long hallway. We’re going to keep a few and sell a few of this particular batch. Some have gone into our antiques centre space and we’ve also listed 3 or 4 on eBay this week.

Vacances Français

We bought some vintage metal filing drawers at auction last month – these lovely vintage travel maps were stored inside.

The covers immediately caught our eye, with illustrations by French artist Jean Colin. Born in 1912, he’s best known for his advertising posters from the mid 20th century. In addition to Shell, he did artwork for many prominent companies such as Cinzano, Air France, Kiwi Shoe Polish, Marchal and Perrier – and won many awards for his designs.

These Shell guides for various regions of France date from the 1950s/60s.

The maps inside are very attractive too – colourful & detailed, but clear to read.

We’d spied them inside the drawers, but a nice little bonus all the same!

Forthcoming Attractions: late July 2012

Another selection of forthcoming attractions for you to take a peek at – quite a yellow feel to the vintage homewares this time.

Starting with a fab 1960s tapestry. We’ve had these in lots of designs – this one looks like a giant pine cone. It has a very 3D effect, almost exploding out at you.

Next we have this zingy yellow & black leatherette footstool – perfect for adding a real flash of colour to a neutral house decor. It might also look great in a vintage camper van.

This is a lovely lamp – functional, with an elegant simplicity. It was produced by Prova of Italy in the 1960s or 70s.

The map in the background is one of those huge old school maps – this one covering North West England – Lancashire, West Yorkshire, the Dales and Southern Lakes.

We couldn’t possibly leave this one on the market stall as it features our neck of the woods!

These tea trios were made by Tams and we’ve had this spotty pattern in various colourways.

We love this warm butterscotch shade.

And finally… more maps!

In addition to the large school map we’ve also got a pile of 1960s National Geographic maps covering all corners of the globe. They could be kept neatly folded on the shelf, but they would also look great individually framed – or even used en mass as wallpaper. They could cover a huge area – it might look fantastic in a study!

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: maps

These maps are Awesome!

Putting Britain on the map

Vacances Français

Forthcoming Attractions: late July 2012